This invention relates to a method for use in performing surgery in the peritoneal cavity of a female patient. The method is particularly useful in laparoscopic operations on an ovary.
Ovarian cysts, particularly in women over the age of 45, are sometimes malignant. In a surgical operation to remove such a cyst, it is imperative to avoid having fluids drip from the cyst onto underlying normal tissues. If the fluid leaks and touches peritoneal surfaces, there is a danger that the malignancy may spread.
Operations on the female organs are frequently performed laparoscopically. Laparoscopic surgery involves the insufflation of the abdominal cavity with carbon dioxide and the placement of cannulas in the abdominal wall of the patient. Distal end portions of laparoscopic instruments are inserted through the cannulas for performing an operation inside the abdominal cavity by surgeons manipulating the proximal ends of the instruments. Laparoscopic instruments include a fiber-optic laparoscope which enables visual monitoring of abdominal organs, as well as the distal end portions of the operating instruments.
Performing an operation laparoscopically, instead of via a traditional open incision, provides the substantial benefits of reducing patient trauma and hospital convalescent time. However, in laparoscopic surgery to remove an ovarian cyst, there is always leakage from the cyst, with the attendant risk that the cyst may be malignant and that the malignancy may spread to underlying peritoneal tissues.